


Hot Zone

by greycoupon



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Episode: s02e09 Firewalker, F/M, Mulder and Scully locked in a room together for a month, Quarantine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-11-19
Packaged: 2021-02-12 23:41:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21484759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greycoupon/pseuds/greycoupon
Summary: All the white was hurting Mulder's eyes and he just wished Scully wasn't so upset about the situation.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32





	Hot Zone

Scully needed a phone. Mulder just wanted a deck of cards. They were in day 6 of quarantine after their adventure at Mount Avalon. It was incredibly boring. The nurses came to check their vitals every hour and the doctors paid them a visit twice a day during rounds, but, besides that, they were left alone. Though not really alone, there were cameras on them constantly just to make sure they didn’t start foaming at the mouth or drop dead of some alien parasite.

Even though Mulder was bored out of his mind and frustrated, he was ridiculously happy. Scully couldn’t figure out why he seemed so enthused and Mulder couldn’t bring voice to what he was feeling. It didn’t matter where he was. He was with Scully. She was back, healthy and by his side. He thought he had lost her forever and after months of unending agony and guilt she had been returned. The fifty-ton weight pressing down on his chest, since the moment he had heard her frantic message on his answering machine, had finally been lifted although the wrecking ball full of guilt still hit him straight in the gut.

So Mulder was fine spending a few weeks in a bright, white room.. Everything in the room was white. The walls, the floor, the hospital beds and even the cabinets lining the walls were pristine white. The room was sparsely furnished with two beds and a rickety card table, white of course. There were several pieces of portable medical equipment pushed into one corner, leaving most of the room empty. Perfect space for pacing when you were bored out of your mind.

He had asked for books and had been denied. He had annoyed Scully by insisting they play a plethora of verbal games like ‘I Spy’ (always boring when the answer is inevitably white or medical) and 20 Questions. His attempts to goad her into playing Never Have I Ever and Truth Or Dare were always shot down. What Scully was happy to talk about was how much she wanted to call her mom and how worried her mother must be.

Maggie hadn’t wanted her to come back to work at the FBI. She had pleaded with her to quit and go work a normal job in an ME’s office somewhere. A place with normal hours where she didn’t have to worry about being abducted, mummified by ancient insects, being shot at, or becoming the subject of some government conspiracy.

At the moment, Scully was pacing and fretting.

“Mom must be so worried. We were supposed to have dinner yesterday.”

He knew it was his job to talk her down. “I’m sure the FBI would have notified her and explained this situation,” he pointed out.

“This situation?!” she waved her arms and moved in a circle, gesturing to the entire room.“This situation is what is going to upset her. We are in quarantine for a month...yet again. It was hard enough getting her to understand this the first time.”

Mulder winced, not without some guilt. Maggie Scully had known her daughter would be in dangerous situations when she joined the FBI, but he was sure this kind of danger was not something she could have ever anticipated.

Something else was nagging at him. “Are you sorry that you came back?”

She stopped her pacing and looked at him like he was the Flukeman. “Of course not. I’m right where I want to be.”

She paused to consider him before reaching up and grabbing his shoulders. “Don’t be ridiculous. I want to be here with you.”

She shook him slightly for emphasis. “I just would have appreciated a slightly longer buffer.”

“I’m sorry,” he told her and pulled her in for a hug. She wrapped her arms around his back and they stayed like that for a long moment. It just felt right. He pulled back and gazed into her blue eyes. She actually believed in him. In them. In the work still. He was constantly in awe of her.

He stared at her mouth. She noticed the direction of his gaze and licked her lips nervously. Was she leaning toward him or was that wishful thinking? He did the only thing he could think of. He leaned closer and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead before pulling away and breaking their mutual embrace.

He turned his back to her as he gazed around the room like he had misplaced something. “How about a game of charades?” he offered. She gave him a sad smile. She understood. This was how it had to be.


End file.
